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Category: Crime

I received a free signed first edition copy of this book from the author and publicist in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of this edition.

A murder takes place in the small little village of Shendon. There is something that you should know about his murder that will make solving this crime just that little bit harder for the police trying to solve this murder; nobody liked the victim. This leave practically everyone in “Little Shendon” has a suspect, including the two tourists who are only visiting the town.

It was this concept that I loved when I was approached about reading and reviewing this book. I love murder mysteries. The joy of trying to solve and uncover the killer before they’re revealed. The adrenaline. I love it, and the fact that this book had so many possible killers with so many possible motives, giving more back stories as we were going along, just added to it all. The way that the plot was brought together, all lined up perfectly and I didn’t see it coming. I love it when a book takes me completely by surprise and I haven’t been able to guess the ending, the killer and so on. Then, when looking back on hindsight, you kick yourself not seeing how you didn’t see it coming.

My copy was only 248 pages long and for a book that wasn’t that long, there were a little too many characters introduced into this book. They weren’t all able to stay with me and I wasn’t able to remember each of them specifically, which was disappointing because I felt like I wasn’t giving them each their due respect. I know that this is meant to represent a small village, but some of the characters, including the main ones, just got lost for me possibly because of the vast amount of other characters. But, if you were to take out and reduce some of the characters, or spend some extra time building up and introducing the main characters, possibly making this book about 50 pages longer minimum, there would have been time for there to have been some great character development.

There were some editing mistakes in the copy that I received, that were present in the entirety of the book. Simple things like missing speak bubbles, simple spelling mistakes and other things, that over time did start to annoy me. There is one in particular spelling mistake that does stick out for me as it was then emphasised further by being put into italics. But when an author is so close with their work, things like these are often missed and it is understandable.

Each chapter has their own title name, which gives you a little hint at to what each chapter is going to be about. This could be a little temptation if you were going to end on that chapter, or, if you want to have a little flip through and see what Chapter the killer is going to be revealed in. Not that you would read that Chapter before it’s time, of course, but it’s still nice knowing how long you have left until all is revealed. I will admit though that this story did drag a little bit for me and I was tempted to skip to that chapter entitled “And the killer is…” Maybe it was because I was nowhere near guessing who the killer was and wanted to know who it the murder was.

So, I did enjoy the story, but it could have done with being longer to have developed more of the characters. I defiantly like the idea and the concept behind it and would have loved a whole Murder on the Orient Express ending, that’s here my head was going when I was reading the book. I loved that idea. How it was all brought together in the end was so good and clever and I’m gutted I that I missed it. I wish I could’ve rated it higher, but I’m defiantly giving it a strong 3 stars out of 5!

​I was approached and sent a free copy of this book by the authors and publicist, in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion of this book.
I didn’t know what to expect from this book and I was surprised by how quickly I was able to immerse myself in this book and the world within it. The characters of Jane and Susan were strongly developed to the point that you start caring about them, which is what you want with this type of book. The same can be said with the male characters and the suspicion that surrounds them and the possibility that they could be the guilty character, the Gentleman Rapist. Not knowing who to trust.
This book is surrounded in so much mystery, which is fantastic has it keeps you guessing right up to the last few pages. This mystery and these questions are answered in the last few chapters, which is where everything is so brilliantly brought together.
There were some editing issues in my copy where wrong names were used when talking about certain characters and so on, as though there were some last minute switches. These were just silly mistakes that could’ve been sorted with a once over, but it’s something I had to mention as it happened several times and it did begin to annoy me. But on saying that, it didn’t interfere with the story.
I just discovered that this book is the second book in the Jane Larson series and I’m interested to read the first book.

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review of the book and as part of a Goodreads Bookclub.

When Maddie Chandler was ten years old, her twin sister, Angeline, was murdered. Her mother then goes insane, being placed into an institution and with her father being who he is, Maddie is placed into the care of Aunt Ceci, who then raises and treats Maddie as though she is her own daughter. Maddie goes through high school being blamed for her sisters death, also for being constantly told that and therefore believing that wrong sister died. So, Maddie leaves this town as soon as she’s able and leaves for college. It takes her ten years before she comes back to her home town, but sadly, she only come back to attend the funeral of her beloved Aunt Ceci. But as soon as she is back, she is forced to face her troubled past that she has hidden even from herself. There is some happiness, in the form of her old high school crush Zac, her friends and her home made family. Will she find the truth behind the murder of her sister? Is she going insane or is she really seeing her sisters ghost?

I was genuinely shocked that I enjoyed this book as much as I did, simply because I thought that I thought I wasn’t going to, I put off reading it until the last minute it had to be read for the bookclub on Goodreads. There are so many topics in this book, which was surprising as it isn’t that big of a book, such as; Mystery, Romance, Crime, Death, Paranormal, that I wasn’t sure which was the main theme of the book. There is another topic/theme, but I didn’t want to include it above, as it will give away one of the main surprises to the plot of this book, but it may be a trigger warning for some.

Some of the characters did have some strong developments, and I did like the relationship between Maddie and Zac. I even liked the relationship, or lack there of, between Maddie and her father. Even the writing was good and easy to follow and once I started reading it, it took me less than 2 days to finish it. There were so many questions left unanswered when I finished this book, which left me wanting answers and unsatisfied. On saying that, there is going to be another book coming out, so maybe that’s why there were things left unanswered, as they will be included in it’s sequel, but this book didn’t leave me wanting more and I wouldn’t rush out to buy it. So for that reason, I had to give it 2.5/3 stars out of 5.

Now if you like mysteries you may like this one. It keeps you guessing right up until the last page, with constant twists and turns. If you’ve read this book, let me know what you thought of this book. Do you agree or disagree with my rating?

“In an empty car park, Ryan James sits in his car contemplating death. He has set up a hose pipe that is pouring carbon monoxide into the car, and his deciding whether or not to close the last window and end it all. Finally, he gets a text and decides to end his life.

Detective Inspector Martin is called to the scene the next. At first she is convinced it is a simple suicide but as she looks deeper into the boy’s life and his relationships she begins to wonder if someone else was involved.”

I selected this audiobook to download and listen to for two reasons, it is a short little story, just over a hour long and because it was a free download. FREE!

This was a quick and easy listen, which was exactly what I was looking for, to listen to while I was working out in the gym, instead of listening to music. This audio book did exactly what I wanted it to do, especially for such a short story, listening to the whole story in one listen!

The story reminded me of something that has actually happened and just kept me thinking throughout the whole duration of the story. So I had no problem believing this story one bit. There were some extra twists and turns in this book that I wasn’t expecting and it did keep me hooked throughout its entirety, although that isn’t hard to do as it’s only roughly 1hr and 9mins long. For a book that is only this amount of time you wouldn’t expect to be able to enjoy it as much, but maybe because this is so similar to something I read in the news it was easier and quicker to get into the story.

One thing that I didn’t like was the poor character development, which is expected with such a short story with the short amount of time. The development was at its minimal, topped then with its sudden change in how the reader/listener is suppose to suddenly change their feeling and emotions from hatred to sympathy towards one particular character. That just took me by surprise and frankly this was impossible for me to do.

But overall I did enjoyed this little short story. It was easy to listen to, to follow, to keep myself hooked while busy doing other things surrounded by other people. A nice quick little read/listen and it was FREE and didn’t use any credits or anything.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of this book.

OMG!! From the very first page this book had me hooked! Told from different characters perspectives, we discover how Lily, who was kidnapped at aged 16, was beaten, raped, “trained” and manipulated over the course off 8 years, even mothering a child from the man who took her and did all of these terrible things to her. The story starts eight years later, when her taker, her former beloved English teacher Rick, has too much on his plate or becomes too cocky and too greedy, forgets to put the deadlock back on the door. Lily thinks that she’s just imagined this, or that it’s another test that she will get punished for, but then seeing her daughter curled up sleeping, she risks yet another punishment, for her daughters safety and checks the door. Discovering it’s not a test and he’s finally made a mistake after eight years, Lily wraps her daughter Sky up warm and starts running to safety before Rick remembers his mistake. And that’s where the book gets really, really good….

This book is hands down my one of my favourite books that I have read lately and it came out of nowhere! I found this book so captivating right from page one and every page just managed to grab me, pull me in and keep me hooked. It was written amazingly, with characters that I cared so much about, each and everyone. With a villain that I simply hated. A normal, every day man to people’s faces, but behind closed doors, sadistic and PURE EVIL!! When you have a book with so many characters, who each have their own problems, and to care and understand each of them and their problems, it’s, in my opinion, really good writing. There were chapters written from the perspective of individual characters, which was brilliant and something that I love as a reader in certain books because I get to see inside each of their minds in a deeper way, and I creepily loved being able to see inside the mind of Rick. Seeing why he did what he did, in a way that he could never explain to anyone, in a way that he truly believed was right and acceptable.

I would have loved, to have seen just one chapter, maybe at the end of the book, to have had one chapter from the point of view of Sky, Lilys daughter, just to see what she had thought of it all and how she had felt after going though it all and come through everything. It would have added something extra, especially coming from a child’s perspective of it all. Even more considering Sky had been born not knowing anything different, to then discover a new way of living after “leaving” the cabin, thanks to her mum, Lily. It would have made it interesting to have included one chapter at the end to see how Sky had interpreted it all and see it from her point of view. But I understand not having that and I loved how it did end. In fact, when a certain part happened, without giving away spoilers, I was in utter shock!!! I was reading this book and genuinely gasped out loud out with shock, being surprised towards the end, telling everyone around me to be quiet because I had to find out what was about to happen next!! Not caring what people said or how they were looking at me, I just needed to know.

Trying to put myself in Lilys place is a scary thought, which is why I think I got so engrossed in this book. It took something that could really happen, and has been known to happen, and brought it to life. It’s not ghosts or vampires or anything pretend scary, and it didn’t even have a vicious villain, not really. It had a well liked, or really loved man in the society that nobody knew what he was like, really like, deep down, not even his own wife. That’s the scary part! It could be reality. That’s the truth of this story! That you don’t know what people are really like, not really, no matter how well you think you do. Your next door neighbour. Your friends. Your husband. Your cool english teacher who offers you a lift home. It’s realistic and scary.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough!! This book will stay with me for a while and have talked about and recommend this book to so many people. I will definitely be checking out Hollie Overton and keeping my eye out for more of her books coming out.

I have recently read this book, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t own this little title for a while now. I bought this book when it become the big phenomenon that The Girl On a Train had become, with the intention of reading it straight away to discover what the big fuss was about, but as usual, I got a little distracted, probably by a different book. But now with the release of the movie onto DVD (well in my country) it really got me excited for this book again, so of course I had to read it. Now how to explain this book without giving away too many spoilers, because I personal hate it when that happens, so I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else.

This book is told between three women’s perspective; Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel rides the train everyday, or every weekday, with every other commuter who is going back and fore to work and back. She loves the train. She knows everything about it. Every stop, every signal. Every house it passes, the people in those houses. At least the lives she makes up for those people in her head. She always sees her favourite couple, Jess and Jason, although that’s not their real names of course. She fantasies about their perfect relationship. That is until one day she sees “Jess” kissing someone who isn’t “Jason” and she get’s angry. But, Rachel has a secrets also. One of those secrets is that Rachel is an alcoholic who sometimes blacks out. And when she blackouts this time, “Jess” a.k.a Megan is missing, and Rachel has woken up at home in bed hurt and covered in blood, with no idea what’s happened.

I will start off by saying that I was really disappointed and massively let down with this book. I don’t even think it has anything to do with the anticipation and build up of waiting to read it and then finally doing so after so much time, that it just let it all down. I just personally think that it wasn’t as good as what it could have been. There was definitely story there with the potential for it be great, but the way it was written and executed, I think was poorly managed. The way that it was setup and organized, Morningand Evening, was a good idea when it came to Rachels’ character because of the train and how she spent majority of her days on the train, but I don’t think this needed to be carried on indefinitely. Those two are not the only times of the day.

I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters, and when you think that you are starting to, they say or do something that just pushed you further away from them. I don’t know if this was done intentionally or not, but this even included Rachel and Megan. Then you have Anna, who I think I disliked the most out of them all. Even when it came to the other character’s, such as Tom and Scott. I will admit that I did guess the ending. It wasn’t to difficult to work it out as it was all PLAINLY laid out in front of you. I actually said to myself very early on that it couldn’t be that simple or easy, but yepp.

I think why I’m so frustrated when it comes to this book, is because the story is there for it to have been so great. The whole idea of it and the story is, without a doubt my favourite part, but you have to forgive, or rather I have to forgive some major parts to accept that, such as the writing. For a book to have had such a massive hype that this book has had, I honestly did expect it to be better than what I read.

I wouldn’t recommend this book, purely on the fact of how disappointed I was when I finished it, plus the fact that I would NOT re-read this book again. But if you are going to read this book, please go into it not expecting great things, at least that way, it may turn out a little better than expected.

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